LùnMèng jīngyì 論孟精義
Essential Meanings of the Analects and the Mencius
朱熹 (Zhū Xī, 1130–1200)
About the work
A 34-juàn anthology of Sòng Lǐxué commentary on the Lúnyǔ (20 juàn) and the Mèngzǐ (14 juàn), gathered and arranged by Zhū Xī from twelve named contributors. Zhū Xī first compiled the Lúnyǔ yàoyì 論語要義 in Lóngxìng 1 (1163; not extant); nine years later, in Qiándào rénchén 乾道壬辰 (1172), he reworked it into the LùnMèng jīngyì 論孟精義 with his own preface — the present work. He later renamed it Yàoyì 要義 (Essential Meanings) and finally Jíyì 集義 (Collected Meanings); the WYG retains the original Qiándào Jīngyì title. The Jíyì is the textual base for the later, slimmer Sìshū jízhù of KR1h0015; in the Sìshū jízhù Zhū Xī filtered out the rough material, but as he wrote in the Yǔlù, he insisted that students should still read the Jíyì itself “to feel the texture of the master’s words and the disciples’ replies”.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: LùnMèng jīngyì in 34 juàn — by Zhūzǐ of the Sòng. In Lóngxìng 1 (1163), Zhūzǐ first compiled the various Lúnyǔ commentators’ words into a Yàoyì 要義. That copy is not transmitted. Nine years later, in Qiándào rénchén (1172), he again took the words of twelve schools — the two Chéngs (Hào and Yí), Zhāngzǐ (Zhāng Zǎi); Fàn Zǔyǔ 范祖禹, Lǚ Xīzhé 呂希哲, Lǚ Dàlín 呂大臨, Xiè Liángzuǒ 謝良佐, Yóu Zuò 游酢, Yáng Shí 楊時, Hóu Zhòngliáng 侯仲良, Yǐn Tūn 尹焞, Zhōu Fúxiān 周孚先 — gathered them up and arranged them by Classic-passage, naming the work LùnMèng jīngyì, with his own preface; this was the year he turned 43.
Later he had blocks cut at Yùzhāngjùn 豫章郡 [Nánchāng], and renamed it Yàoyì. The Huì’ān jí contains “Postscript to the Lúnyǔ Mèngzǐ Yàoyì Preface”, which says: “I, [Zhū] Xī, edited and printed this book some years ago — Jiànyáng learners have transmitted it long. Later, on careful re-examination, I found that the words of Chéngzǐ, Zhāngzǐ, and the various masters were here and there omitted; I have made supplements, and I obtained Mr Zhōu of Pílíng’s [Zhōu Fúxiān’s] words, four-and-a-half piān of them, from Chén Tūnmíngzhòng 陳焞明仲 of Jiànyáng, and have appended them to the relevant chapters. Mr Huáng Mǒu Shāngbó 黃某商伯 of Yùzhāngjùn, the wénxué magistrate of Nánkāng, has now had this cut at the academy; concerned lest readers be uncertain about the difference of fullness and abridgement, he has asked me to write to the left of the old preface, and to revise the title: from Jīngyì it now becomes Yàoyì.”
This is the matter. He later again changed the name to Jíyì, as recorded in the niánpǔ. Modern cuttings still title it Jīngyì — following Zhūzǐ’s own original preface.
There are 20 juàn of Lúnyǔ, 14 of Mèngzǐ; before the work proper there is one Gānglǐng 綱領 piān, not counted in the juàn. When Zhūzǐ first compiled this book, he used the Chéng school’s learning to expound the Classics’ broad sense. Later, choosing the cream of it, he composed the Jízhù; in between, where there were yìtóng 異同 doubts to be sifted, he separately published the Huòwèn. So this book might seem like the discarded husk of an earlier draft.
Yet examination of the Yǔlù says: “In reading the LùnMèng one must look at the Jīngyì”; and again: “Of the various masters’ words gathered in the LùnMèng jíyì, one must read each carefully and store it in one’s heart, and bring it forth to roll over and savour from time to time — long-continued, the principle naturally falls into place.” It seems, then, Zhūzǐ himself did not consider the Jízhù to abolish this book. We accordingly preserve it. — Respectfully revised, fifth month of the 46th year of Qiánlóng [1781].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The LùnMèng jīngyì is the most thorough surviving witness to the Cheng-school of Lǐxué before its consolidation in Zhū Xī’s own commentary: it gathers the Lúnyǔ and Mèngzǐ readings of the two Chéng brothers (Hào 顥 and Yí 頤), Zhāng Zǎi 張載, and ten other Cheng-school transmitters — most importantly Yáng Shí 楊時 (the southern transmitter), Yóu Zuò 游酢, Xiè Liángzuǒ 謝良佐, the two Lǚs (Lǚ Xīzhé 呂希哲 and Lǚ Dàlín 呂大臨), Hóu Zhòngliáng 侯仲良, Fàn Zǔyǔ 范祖禹, Yǐn Tūn 尹焞, and Zhōu Fúxiān 周孚先. Of these readings, only those of the Chéng brothers are otherwise broadly extant; for the rest, this is the principal source.
The Sìkù editors’ note that it is at first glance the “discarded husk” (zāobò 糟粕) of the later Jízhù, but that Zhū Xī himself insisted students should still read it, captures exactly the work’s status: it is the raw material of the orthodox commentary, where the Jízhù is the polished result. The Sòng Lǐxué community valued this anthology for its richness; the post-Yuán kējǔ community valued it less, because the slimmer Jízhù was sufficient for examination purposes.
The textual history is unusually well-recorded. Three sequential titles: Yàoyì (Lóngxìng 1, 1163; lost), Jīngyì (Qiándào 8, 1172; the present text), Yàoyì (post-1172 Yùzhāngjùn cutting), Jíyì (final post-1180 title). The Yùzhāng cutting added Zhōu Fúxiān’s contribution and is the basis of all later transmission.
Translations and research
No English translation of the work as a whole. Selected entries are quoted in Daniel K. Gardner, Zhu Xi’s Reading of the Analects (Columbia, 2003), and in Bryan W. Van Norden, Mengzi: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Hackett, 2008). Modern Chinese punctuated edition: in Zhū-zǐ quánshū 朱子全書 vol. 7 (Shàng-hǎi gǔ-jí 2002), edited by 朱傑人 et al. Studies: Cài Fāng-lù 蔡方鹿, Sòng-dài Sì-shū xué yánjiū; Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (UHP, 1992); Wing-tsit Chan, Chu Hsi: New Studies (HUP, 1989).
Other points of interest
The work is the single most important primary source for the Lúnyǔ and Mèngzǐ readings of the lost Cheng-school disciples. Without it, the careful reconstruction of (e.g.) Yáng Shí’s, Yóu Zuò’s, and the two Lǚs’s Lǐxué would be substantially poorer.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §28.7.3.
- Zhūzǐ quánshū vol. 7 (Shànghǎi gǔjí 2002).
- 全國漢籍データベース 四庫提要